Krysten Ritter is making waves in a new campaign urging SeaWorld to release their orcas to seaside sanctuaries.
The “Jessica Jones” star appears pressed up against the walls of an aquarium tank in a video produced by People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals, posted on Facebook Thursday.
“SeaWorld has vowed to end their breeding program, but it’s simply not enough,” Ritter says in the clip. “Orcas are highly evolved, emotional, intelligent creatures who should not be confined in this kind of captivity. It’s the equivalent of a human living their life in a bathtub.”
SeaWorld has long drawn the condemnation of animal advocates who say that life in a tank is a cruel, stressful fate for animals as large and intelligent as orcas. And after the documentary “Blackfish” — which painted a chilling picture of SeaWorld — was released in 2013, public support for the parks plummeted and attendance shrank drastically.
PETA is not asking SeaWorld to simply release their whales into the open ocean — a fate that would likely not end well for animals used to living with human assistance. Instead, they are requesting that the orcas go to a “sea sanctuary” — meaning an outdoor, enclosed area of natural sea water providing much more room than their current tanks and mimicking their natural environment as closely as possible.
The proposed set-up would likely be similar to a sanctuary currently being built for the dolphins of Baltimore’s National Aquarium, which are slated to move in by 2020.
SeaWorld rejected the idea of sea pens last year, with a spokesperson telling The Huffington Post that the unpredictable environment of such a place — as compared to tightly-controlled tanks — would be potentially hazardous for the whales. Marine biologist and sea sanctuary proponent Naomi Rose dismissed that argument as “off-the-charts irrational.”
As Ritter acknowledged, SeaWorld announced an end to its breeding program in March. Since the corporation park stopped capturing whales from the wild decades ago, this effectively means that orcas will be phased out. They also announced that their circus-like performances they already have will be replaced with more “natural” orca experiences, but critics fear the animals’ living conditions will not substantially improve.
While numerous animal advocates have echoed PETA’s concerns about SeaWorld, some of the group’s other controversial policies have put them at odds with animal lovers. PETA supports breed-specific bans on pit bulls, advocated for Michael Vick’s rescued fighting dogs to be euthanized instead of rehabbed, and has fought legislation that would promote trap-neuter-release programs — as an alternative to euthanasia — for feral cats.
Additionally, PETA has expressed staunch opposition to “no-kill” shelter policies, while at the same time drawing criticism for its own Virginia shelter’s alarmingly high euthanasia rate and refusing to disclose how it determines whether an animal should be put down.
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